Dear Friends of Poetry,
Our April 3rd, Poetry Night will feature local poets Clarence Major and April Ossmann. We meet at 7 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery, and we hope you can join us!
Clarence Major began teaching at UC Davis after holding positions at Temple University, SUNY – Binghamton, University of Colorado, University of Washington, Howard University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Brooklyn College. He is a versatile man of letters who writes poetry and fiction as well as non-fiction. He was nominated for the 1999 National Book Award in poetry for Configurations: New & Selected Poems 1958-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1999). His other books include Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism (1998), and All-Night Visitors (1998).
The New York Times Book Review called Clarence Major’s most recent book, Four Days in Algeria, “A world traveler’s notebook of gentle, affable observations.” In addition to this accomplishment, Major has a forthcoming poetry collection titled Sporadic Troubleshooting, scheduled for publication in 2026. That will be his 40th book.
Major reviews for The Washington Post Book World and has contributed to The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book World, American Vision, Essence, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The American Review, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, The American Poetry Review, and more than a hundred other periodicals and anthologies in this country, Europe, South America, and Africa. In 1991 he served as fiction judge for The National Book Awards. He has served twice on National Endowment for the Arts panels, and has served as judge for the Pen/Faulkner Awards. He has traveled extensively and lived in various parts of the United States and for extended periods in France and Italy. Clarence Major lives in northern California.
Opening for Major will be April Ossmann.
April Ossmann is the author of WE (Red Hen Press, April 15, 2025), Event Boundaries (a finalist for the Vermont Book Award) and Anxious Music, both from Four Way Books, and has published poetry in numerous journals including New England Review, Harvard Review and Colorado Review, and in anthologies including From the Fishouse (Persea Books), and is the recipient of several awards for her poetry, including a 2013 Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant and a Prairie Schooner Readers’ Choice Award. She has also published essays including Thinking Like an Editor: How to Order Your Poetry Manuscript (Poets & Writers, March/April 2011), and a biography/critical study of poet Lynda Hull in American Writers Supplement XXI (Charles Scribner’s Sons).
Ossmann was a faculty editor for the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe, and teaches guest poetry workshops regionally, using a non-traditional workshop method she developed intended to teach poets to revise their work more objectively (as an editor would), and has taught creative writing and literature courses at Lebanon College and at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The open mic tonight starts at 8. Performers will be asked to limit their sharings to two items or four minutes whichever is shorter. The open mic list is typically full by 6:45. People who show up early to help set up chairs will always earn a spot on the open mic list. Thanks to the new producer of Poetry Night, Robby Nykodym.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Encourage your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, check out his weekly podcast at https://poetrytechnology.buzzsprout.com/. Also, see some of his recent essays, including brief remembrances of past Poetry Night featured performers Sandra Gilbert, Sandra McPherson, and John Boe, on Substack: https://andyjones.substack.com/. Dr. Andy’s Substack is almost to 250 subscribers. Perhaps you will help him reach his goal.
In 2025, we plan to feature the poets Robby Nykodym, Oswaldo Vargas, Mary Mackey, Patrick Grizzell, Julia Levine, Susan Browne, Dane Cervine, and many more.
Upcoming Events:
April 17 – Julia Levine and Susan Browne, on the roof
May 1 – Patrick Grizzell and Oswaldo Vargas, on the roof
May 15 – Robby Nykodym, on the roof
Please plan to join us on every first and third Thursday of the month at 7 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series.
Fondly yours,
Dr. Andy Jones
Host, The Poetry Night Reading Series
